Napoli 2-0 Atalanta: Hosts regain 18-point advantage at top of Serie A table after latest victory

Napoli regained their 18-point advantage at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win over Atalanta. Second half goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and defender Amir Rrahmani were enough to claim all three points as Luciano Spalletti’s side close in on their first Scudetto since 1989-90.

Ad Chances were few and far between in a cagey opening period but Napoli did have a handful of opportunities to test Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso. Serie AVecino strike condemns Napoli to just second league defeat of season03/03/2023 AT 19:22 The first came early on when Matteo Politano and Piotr Zielinski combined well on the edge of the box before the former took aim at the Atalanta goal with a low, hard strike, but Musso was down quickly to palm the ball away.

Kvaratskhelia showed his flair to beat two defenders and burst into the Atalanta box, but his shot from a tight angle beat off the chest of Musso who got across his line to the near post early. The two best chances of the half came minutes before the break when Victor Osimhen darted into the penalty area before he fizzed a ball across the six-yard box, which Musso — once again — guided away from goal and into the centre of the box, but there was no one there to take advantage of the loose ball.

After a string of scrappy Atalanta attempts to get the ball clear, the ball found its way to Politano 14 yards from goal, but his strike was kept out by the busy goalkeeper. Musso was called into action for a fifth time when he was in the right place to stop Osimhen’s outrageous bicycle kick effort early into the second half, which was straight at the Argentine despite the brilliant execution.